... Ryan sent 4, not 2, requests for stimulus funds
But he’s too cute to be a pig?
We’d reported earlier on Paul Ryan’s penchant for pork. And especially his taste for forbidden pork – the stuff that he’d already publicly criticized (in Thursday night’s vice presidential debate Ryan called the stimulus bill “crony capitalism and corporate welfare), but then privately sought stimulus monies twice for his own constituents.
Ryan also sought Obamacare monies for his constituents, even though he’s repeatedly railed against Obamacare and promised to repeal it if given the chance. (No word yet on whether Ryan will ask his constituents to give the money back.)
Well now the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis have uncovered that Ryan didn’t just seek stimulus monies twice for constituents. He did it four times. Here’s HuffPo:
A Freedom of Information Act request for correspondence between Ryan’s office and the Environmental Protection Agency, filed by The Huffington Post, unearthed two additional instances in which the Wisconsin Republican petitioned for American Recovery Act funds. In addition, there were many other occasions in which the repugican vice presidential nominee asked the EPA for grant money for projects in Wisconsin’s 1st District, which encompasses Ryan’s hometown of Janesville and has a slight Democratic lean. Combined, the letters muddy Ryan’s claim that the stimulus wasn’t helpful and that government spending, more broadly, doesn’t assist small businesses.As I noted in my earlier story, if Ryan thought the stimulus was such a waste of money, then why did he “waste” it on his own constituents? The governors of Texas, Alaska and South Carolina all turned down stimulus money rather than “waste” it on their constituents. Why didn’t Ryan do the same?
And just as troubling, as HuffPo notes, why are Ryan and Romney claiming that the stimulus didn’t help small business when Ryan knows first hand, via these letters, that it did?
In fact, during the vice presidential debate, Ryan claimed twice that the stimulus only went to “special interest groups.”
Yes, like his constituents.
RYAN: Was it a good idea to borrow all this money from countries like China and spend it on all these various different interest groups?Apparently, according to Paul Ryan, it is a good idea to borrow all this money from countries like China so long as it’s his pork.
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